Federer, on his part, shared his joy at being at an event he missed last year due to injury. He congratulated Nadal and saying, “it’s nice to share this court with you (Rafa) today and hopefully we’ve got more to come.”

The 36-year-old remains in the running for the world number one spot as the gap between him and Nadal is just 1940 points with 1500 points at stake for the winner at Basel and Paris.

Federer has, however, hinted at a possible rest instead of participating in both tournaments.

He said: “I’m not thinking about it (No. 1 spot). I just try to be healthy now. I’ll go back to Switzerland tomorrow with my team and decide what I’m going to play, whether I’ll go to Basel and Paris. I’m focused on London and winning there. If I play like this, maybe, who knows I’ll get close to it.”

The two of them have had a resurgence this year, sharing the grand slams equally between themselves and leading Team Europe to victory in the inaugural Laver Cup 2017.